THE GURTEEN KNOWLEDGE-LETTER (ISSUE 2, 10 JULY 2000)
====================================================Welcome to the second issue of the Gurteen Knowledge-Letter. The
response to the first issue has been good and I'd like to thank
everyone who has given me feedback. This includes the idea for
the new name from Angela Hector and the table of contents
section from Paddy Falls.

BOOK REVIEW: THE CLUETRAIN MANIFESTO
====================================The Cluetrain Manifesto spells out, in a provocative way, the
death of marketing as we know it. The authors believe that due
to conversations being held on the Web through e-mail and chat
rooms, that employees and customers are undermining the
traditional command-and-control hierarchy of corporate marketing
groups. The authors see markets as "conversations," and feel
that these conversations are "getting smarter faster than most
companies."

The Cluetrain Manifesto began as a Web site in 1999 when the
authors posted 95 theses that they felt described the emerging
networked marketplace. For example, "Markets consist of human
beings, not demographic sectors"; "Markets do not want to talk
to flacks and hucksters; and "We are immune to advertising. Just
forget it." (I love their style!)

The book develops these ideas and is filled with stories and
observations about how business works and the impact of the
Internet.

THE DISCIPLINE OF DIALOGUE
==========================Dialogue is a disciplined form of conversation. It is an
emerging process that has tremendous potential for transforming
the way that people communicate and share tacit knowledge in
everyday conversation. Fundamentally in dialogue, when two
people engage each other in a conversation, they do so with the
view to learn from each other rather than impose their views on
the other. In this sense "dialogue" is different from most
conversations or what might be called "normal dialogue". It is
based on the work of the physicist David Bohm and forms the
basis of Peter Senge's fourth discipline of "Team Learning" in
his well known book "The Fifth Discipline".
For links to a number of resources on Dialogue and related
materials:http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0000722E/

QUOTATION: THREE PRINCIPLES IN A MAN'S LIFE
===========================================Here is one of my favourite quotes from Martin Bluber - very
relevant to the concepts of "Difficult Conversations" and
"Dialogue".

"There are three principles in a man's being and life, the
principle of thought, the principle of speech, and the principle
of action. The origin of all conflict between me and my
fellow-men is that I do not say what I mean and I don't do what
I say."

E-MARKETPLACES FOR BUYING & SELLING PEOPLE & SKILLS
===================================================If you have been following the press, E-Marketplaces are set to
revolutionise the way organizations buy and sell goods and raw
materials. Some of the world's biggest corporations, from
General Motors and Ford to Sears and DuPont are building B2B
e-marketplaces.

At a personal level you are probably more familiar with on-line
auction sites such as http://www.ebay.com and http://auctions.yahoo.com/ but e-marketplaces give on-line
auctions a new twist. They create a marketplace for buying and
selling people and skills, not just supplies and products. They
best suit services that can be delivered remotely such as
programming and web design. Registration is normally free. A
company simply posts a project description on the web and other
companies or freelancers bid for the contract Everything is open
so everyone can see the details of the proposed transactions
including prices.

If you are a freelancer, investigate some of the sites and post
your details. Or if you are a manager looking to subcontract
work take a look to see what is on offer or post some project
work and review the bids.
Here are some of the more popular e-marketplace sites:http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0001362A/

LEARNINGSTICKERS UPDATE
=======================A number of you liked the LearningStickers concept and gave me
feedback. Since last month, I have improved them a little. I can
now vary the size of each sequence of stickers and the "slide
show play" feature is at last working. There is still more
development work to do though to make them easier to use and
more effective as a learning aid. I'd love more feedback.
See: LearningStcikershttp://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0001117E/

GOING SOLO
==========It seems that hardly a day goes by when someone doesn't ask my
advise on going "solo" - working for themselves as a freelance
consultant, developer, writer, whatever. Or maybe starting a
small business of their own. If this attracts you then here are
a few books and web sites that should prove helpful. In
particular take a look at Harriet Rubin's book "Soloing" that
gives a deep insight into the psychology of it all.
See links on soloing:http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/ID/X0001131E/

SEARCH ENGINES UPDATE
=====================In response to the section on search engines in last month's
newsletter, an old colleague, Paddy Falls, drew my attention to
a search engine that takes a visual approach to searching. Its
fun - check it out at http://www.webbrain.com

If you are interested in Knowledge Management, the
Knowledge Café
Knowledge Café
or the role of conversation in organizational life then you my be interested in this online book I am writing on
Conversational Leadership

David Gurteen

I help people to share their knowledge; to learn from each other; to innovate and to work together effectively to make a difference!

The Gurteen Knowledge Community is a global learning community
of over 21,000 people in 160 countries across the world.

The community is for people who are committed to making a difference:
people who wish to share and learn from each other and who strive to see
the world differently, think differently and act differently.